Little Sister
by Anne-Lilian
Summary: Very loosely inspired by chapter 7 of trillion42's story "little sister". Merlynn falls in love with the wrong guy. But the Knights won't let anyone hurt their 'little sister' without consequence. Based on a prompt I received from a reader. One-shot. FemMerlin, hurt/comfort, rated K


**A/N: Okay, definitely not my best work, but when someone gives you a prompt, what are you going to do? It was weird for me to write this with Merlynn and Arthur having a close sibling relationship as opposed to a romantic one, as I usually do, but that was specifically in the prompt, so I put it in. I hope it seems genuine enough.**

 **That said, I do hope some of you will enjoy this.**

 **Little Sister**

Arthur had never spent a lot of time thinking about Sir Lucan. He was a fourth son of some minor noble lord, and he was neither a very good nor a very bad knight. No, Arthur had never spent much time thinking about Sir Lucan.

That changed the day he found Merlynn crying in a corner of the Queen's gardens.

The gardens themselves hadn't been used since his mother Ygraine had died years ago. They'd grown a little wild, though that didn't diminish its beauty. Arthur was the only one who still occasionally visited the gardens, and the shrine that had been set up for his mother.

Or so he'd thought.

He'd needed a moment of solitude, away from the prying eyes of court, and all their expectations. But then he'd heard soft, muffled sobs coming for the far corner. When he'd gone to investigate, he'd found Merlynn sitting on a rock, her head buried in her hands.

"Merlynn?" he called out softly.

The girl started and looked up, before quickly turning around to try and compose herself. He'd only caught a glimpse of her tear-stained face and red-rimmed eyes. "Arthur, what… what are you doing here?" she asked, keeping her back turned to him.

Arthur could still see her shoulders shake a little bit, but decided to ignore it for her sake. "It's my mother's garden, I come here sometimes to…" He hesitated, not sure how to articulate it. "Get away…"

"Oh," Merlynn replied eloquently. "I'll leave you be, then," she said, standing up and dashing around him, towards the exit.

But before she could get too far, Arthur caught her wrist, gently, so as not to hurt her. "Are you injured?" he asked softly.

Quickly, she shook her head, but she didn't speak. Still, she didn't turn to face him. "Merlynn," he said softly. "What's wrong?"

For a moment, he thought she was simply going to ignore him or brush him off again. But then she half-turned around, so he could see her profile, though her hair curtained her face. Haltingly, she started telling him about Lucan, one of Arthur's newest knights, and how kind he'd been to her. He'd given her flowers, called her beautiful and made her laugh.

Inwardly, Arthur cursed himself for not having noticed the flirtatious behaviour in his knight.

Then, Merlynn told him about the kisses and stolen moments. Arthur had a hard time staying calm, and he was grateful she couldn't see the murderous expression on his face. When Merlynn told him that Lucan had invited her into his room 'just for a glass of wine', he knew where this story was going. Perhaps Merlynn knew that he'd guessed as well, because she fell silent.

A white-hot rage burned inside Arthur, and he was so busy clenching his fists and jaw that he couldn't speak. When he got his hands on that little worm…

"When… we were finished," Merlynn continued, "he told me to clean up the sheets and go."

Arthur hadn't even noticed his hand clenching the pommel of his sword until she put her hand on his. Her eyes were still red, but she looked almost resigned now. "He didn't break any laws, technically, he didn't do anything wrong. You can't throw him out of the knight's order and you can't hurt him, not without repercussions. I'm just a maid."

 _But you're also my best friend,_ Arthur thought sullenly. There _had_ to be a way to… "Go see Guinevere, you both could use a day among friends," he said, knowing his wife would see that Merlynn was well taken care of.

"What are you going to do?" she asked worriedly.

For a moment, Arthur considered telling her the truth. But for all of her bravado and bravery – not that he'd ever admit she was brave out loud – Merlynn was still sensitive. She'd do anything for her friends and family, but protest whenever they tried to do anything for her. Well, Arthur was the same, he'd do anything for his family. And Merlynn was family.

"I just need to think," he said instead, offering a half-hearted smile. "Don't worry, I won't do anything stupid."

"You're capable of doing non-stupid things?" Merlynn joked, offering a sad smile. If she could joke again, Arthur knew she'd be alright eventually.

"Only occasionally," he replied softly. "Now go get cleaned up, you look terrible."

Letting out a huff of laughter, Merlynn was apparently appeased, so she turned around and quietly left the garden.

Arthur dropped the soft look he'd put on for the maid's benefit and felt his face set in a scowl. Sir Lucan… That lowlife would be learning a lesson sometimes soon…

/*/

Merlynn had been right, of course. She usually was, though Arthur would always go through great pains to ignore that fact.

He couldn't just expel Lucan from the knights, unless the man had broken a law. There was no precedent for it. And while Arthur was content to make 'conduct unbecoming' a valid reason to banish the knight, the rest of court wouldn't be too pleased.

So, he had to be sneakier.

He told his closest friends first. Percival'd had to restrain Gwaine for a while, until he'd calmed down somewhat. Lancelot wanted to challenge Lucan to a duel, but without due cause – and according to the law, this wasn't – if Lancelot killed him, it would be murder. Lancelot suggested that that might not be an unacceptable consequence. Gwaine agreed.

It was Leon who came up with the solution, surprisingly enough.

Suffice it to say, Sir Lucan never bothered another girl again, and even took to taking a detour to avoid Merlynn if he saw her coming.

/*/

"I still don't understand what happened," Merlynn said in a whisper. "I thought he was never going to leave me alone."

Arthur shrugged as he watched her tie the laces on his breastplate. "I suppose he really is a coward through and through."

Merlynn looked up sharply and narrowed her eyes. "Did you say something to him?" she asked, forgetting to keep her voice low.

"I didn't say anything," he said truthfully, though he couldn't quite keep a straight face.

Then, Merlynn noticed that the other knights were all pretending not to listen to their conversation, and looked far too interested in their own armour. "What did you do?" she asked, looking around at them.

Gwaine was the first to break. He looked up and grinned. "Nothing, love. We didn't touch the lad."

"All we did was make it clear that we don't appreciate his kind of conduct," Leon went on.

Percival flexed his muscles and nodded at her. "We didn't do anything that could get us in trouble, Merlynn. But we all care about you, even if Arthur would rather eat his boots than admit it. We're just looking out for you," Lancelot said kindly.

Merlynn looked around at all of them, her eyes brimming with tears. Suddenly, she launched herself at Lancelot, hugging him close. When she pulled back, Percival quickly got the same treatment. "You lot are the stupidest, best big brothers a girl could ask for," she said, hugging them all in turn.

Arthur came last, and for once, he didn't protest the hug she gave him. "Well, _someone_ needs to save your useless hide from time to time."

"Besides," Lancelot said, grinning from ear to ear. "Gwen told us about the little sister talk you gave her when she and Arthur got married," he said, barely holding in his laughter. "If you were willing to do that to a girl who's your friend, I wouldn't want to be the person who _really_ incurs your wrath."

That made Merlynn grin mischievously. "And don't you forget it!"

 **A/N: Let me know what you think!**


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